A NEW PERSPECTIVE TO CLASIFICATE THE BRAZILIAN TOURISTICS CITIES

Abstract

Considering the fragility of the Categorization Instrument of Tourist Municipalities within the Brazilian Tourism Map, which prioritizes market-oriented and technocratic criteria while neglecting the effectiveness and quality of territorial dynamics, this study aims to propose a new classificatory approach for Brazilian tourist municipalities. To this end, an integrative literature review is conducted, articulating the epistemological fields of tourism–spatial, cultural, anthropological, and economic–as an analytical foundation. Thus, it is observed that the current categorization reduces tourism to the logic of supply and demand and to bureaucratic indicators, disregarding its socio-spatial impacts, such as segregation and gentrification. As a result, indicators are proposed that value solidarity economies, local reinvestment, and the active participation of communities in tourism management, ensuring representativeness and the protection of living culture. This allows the conclusion that tourism should be understood as a complex phenomenon and an instrument of social emancipation, going beyond a strictly market-based logic. The proposal contributes, theoretically, to the interdisciplinary deepening of tourism studies and, in practice, supports a new logic for the distribution of federal resources, incorporating cultural, spatial, and anthropological dimensions into public policy formulation.